Where Civility Went To Die…. and Did.

Andrew Breitbart died Thursday. Breitbart had gained fame and notoriety over the past 5-6 years for his hard-hitting Conservative websites. He was 43. Cause of death is listed as “heart failure”. I’ve been in this arena long enough to not be at all surprised by the toxic meltdown Beitbart’s death ignited within the liberal blogosphere. “Scorched Earth” is an understatement……

Anyone reading this website has some familiarity with the lawless frontier of the Internet. This medium has been described as “post-apocalyptic” and “a mosh pit”, “a cyber septic tank” and “where civility went to die… and did” among other colorful phrases.

Rod Serling might dramatize it with a naive cyber traveler landing on a distant world expecting a societal framework with some tangent connection to where he came from…. and quickly realizing it does not. Visited an anonymous Internet forum lately?

Anyone choosing to play in this septic sandbox knows it is fraught with spiders and snakes and all manner of creepy crawlies. A HazMat suit is the uniform of the day.

Andrew Breitbart is being ruthlessly savaged in death by those he opposed in life. Andrew’s family and friends might ask Jesse Helms’ family and friends about such an experience.

There are some bottom-feeding trolls on the Right and I decry them when and where I encounter them. But we Conservatives are amateurs in the business of ruthless savagery. We come into this gladiatorial arena burdened by various levels of Golden Rule civility. We put some form of rubber-tips on our arrows while our opponents dip their arrows in cobra venom.

Our opponent proudly boasts of having “no moral compass”. Why would even a liberal lie about that?

To simply oppose the insidious ideologues of the Far-Left is to unleash their slobbering pit bulls.

Andrew Breitbart knew this. As do I, General Bullmoose. As does Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, The John Locke Foundation, Art Pope, Ann Coulter, et al. We know what to expect from those we oppose. THAT is precisely why we oppose them.

Does one ever “get used to” obscenity-laced insults. To having yourself and your family threatened by keyboard assassins? We all still blink on occasion when we receive a really really nasty one. They confirm that someone must oppose these arrogant ruthless thugs. If not Andrew Breitbart and not Bullmoose and others….. then Who?

It’s bad now BUT we ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. Wait ‘til August, September and October. These will seem like “the good ol’ days”.

How Andrew Breitbart viewed his mission:
“I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and-famously-I enjoy making enemies. Three years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I’ve lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I’ve gained hundreds, thousands — who knows? — of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night.”